How to Do an Internal Link Audit (Step-by-Step)
Even after uploading high-quality content, your website is not ranking; there may be several reasons, such as orphan pages or broken links. However, you can address all of this with an internal Link audit, which directly affects your website’s crawlability, authority distribution, and ranking signals.
Interlinking connects different pages on your website, helping search engines to understand your content. Better interlinking helps content improve rankings, boosts engagement, and turns existing content into a steady growth engine for your business.
This guide will help you audit a website’s internal links, identify them, choose the best SEO tools for internal links, and, most importantly, measure the effectiveness of your internal link strategy in a simple, effective way.
Key Highlights
- Internal link audits improve crawlability, authority distribution, and ranking performance without creating new content.
- Learning how to do an internal link audit helps uncover orphan pages, broken links, redirect chains, and weak structural areas.
- You can find internal links in a website using full-site crawls or Google Search Console’s Links report.
- High-value pages should stay within 3 clicks of your homepage to maximise visibility and authority flow.
What Are Internal Links and Why Do They Matter for SEO?
Internal links connect one page on your website to another within the same domain. They help search engines understand your structure and guide users toward relevant content.
The following are the reasons why internal links matter:
- Distribute authority (internal PageRank)
- Improve crawl depth
- Help Google discover new pages
- Strengthen topic clusters
- Improve conversions by guiding users
Why You Need to Learn How to Audit Website Internal Links?
If you want consistent SEO growth, you must audit a website’s internal links regularly. Internal linking is one of the most controllable ranking factors and often the most overlooked.
An internal link audit helps you:
- Identify orphan pages
- Find broken internal links
- Fix redirect chains
- Strengthen high-value pages
- Improve crawl efficiency
- Support ranking improvements
Step 1: How to Find Internal Links in a Website
Before you make any changes, you must know where your links currently stand. This step explains how to efficiently find internal links on a website. You can find internal links in two main ways:
1. Manual Method
This works for small sites, but it’s not scalable.
- Use site:yourdomain.com “keyword” in Google
- Check the content manually
- Review CMS linking features
2. Tool-Based Method
If you want to know how to find internal links to a page at scale:
- Run a full site crawl
- Export inlink data
- Sort by link count per page
Using structured platforms like WRanker allows you to analyse link data alongside technical SEO signals in one place, making audits faster and more strategic.
Step 2: How to Check All Internal Links at Once Using One Tool
Instead of checking page by page, you need full-site visibility. If you’re wondering how to check everything at once, the answer is a site crawl.
Run a crawl and export:
- Source URL
- Destination URL
- Anchor text
- Link count
- Crawl depth
- Redirect status
This allows you to:
- Identify underlinked pages
- Spot excessive linking
- Detect broken links
- Analyse anchor text distribution
Best SEO Tools for Internal Links
When researching seo tools for internal links, look for platforms that provide:
- Inlink/outlink reporting
- Crawl depth metrics
- Broken link detection
- Redirect chain detection
- Visualization features
Tools like WRanker help streamline this by combining link analysis with performance data and task prioritisation.
Step 3: Using Google Search Console for an Internal Link Audit
One useful tool for internal linking is Google Search Console, which provides valuable insights at no cost.
Inside Google Search Console:
- Go to Links
- Review Internal Links
- Export data
The Links report shows:
- Pages with the most internal links
- Internal authority distribution
- Structural priorities
Export the report and compare:
- Important pages with low internal links
- Pages ranking on page 2 with weak support
- Conversion pages are buried deep
This step supports both audit clarity and strategic improvement.
Step 4: Analyse Your Internal Linking Structure
Analyse Your Internal Linking is a part of the diagnosis phase. This is where you identify structural weaknesses and prioritise fixes.
1. Identify Orphan Pages
Orphan Pages are the pages with zero internal links.
Fix Order:
- Add contextual links from related blog posts
- Link from category pages
- Add navigation links if high priority
2. Fix Broken Internal Links
Broken links waste authority and damage user experience.
Fix immediately:
- Replace outdated URLs
- Update to canonical versions
- Remove unnecessary links
3. Optimise Anchor Text Distribution
Avoid overusing exact-match anchors.
Improve by:
- Using descriptive variations
- Keeping anchors contextual
- Avoiding repetitive patterns
4. Reduce Excessive Linking
Too many links dilute authority.
Audit pages with:
- 100+ internal links
- Overloaded footers
- Unnecessary sidebar links
5. Improve Crawl Depth & Hierarchy
Important pages should be accessible within 3 clicks.
Improve by:
- Adding internal links from high-authority pages
- Flattening site architecture
- Strengthening pillar pages
Step 5: How to Measure Internal Link Strategy Effectiveness
Internal linking improvements are a must, but if you’re wondering how to measure internal link strategy effectiveness, focus on these metrics:
Create a simple tracking sheet:
- Page
- Links Before
- Links After
- Crawl Depth Before
- Crawl Depth After
- Ranking Position Before
- Ranking Position After
Monitor These Indicators
- Crawl depth improvement
- Ranking growth for optimised pages
- Increase in organic clicks
- CTR improvement
- Improved indexation
- Reduced crawl errors
The increase in traffic can be significant even with minor ranking changes (e.g., moving from position 11 to 8). Internal linking can also be made data-driven, not guesswork, when performance monitoring is aligned with unified dashboards such as WRanker optimisation.
Conclusion
Internal linking is not just a choice if you want to build a sustainable ranking for your website. internal linking is an essential step, as it simplifies audits, uncovers hidden structural issues, and aligns internal link data with performance insights.
To make better internal linking decisions and avoid relying on link counts, tools such as WRanker help you move beyond the number of links. WRanker helps you audit internal links, crawl depth, performance indicators, and optimisation priorities, so every link you create serves a ranking purpose.
FAQs
How do I find internal links in a website?
Internal links can be identified by crawling your site with an SEO tool or by using the site: operator in Google to find pages that link to specific URLs.
Is it possible to see internal links in Google Search Console?
Yes, the Links report at Google Search Console indicates the number of internal links to pages on your site.
What is the Links report in Google Search Console?
The Google Search Console Links report shows the top-linked pages on your site, which can help you understand how authority flows across your site.
How can one check all internal links of all pages at once using one tool?
An SEO tool that exports inlinks, outlinks, anchor text, and crawl depth data can be used to check all internal links at once by running a full-site crawl.
How to measure internal link strategy effectiveness?
Measuring internal link effectiveness by monitoring crawl depth, rankings, and organic clicks, as well as indexation following link changes.
Previous Article
How to Do a Website Audit for SEO (Step-by-Step for Beginners)Next Article
What’s Included in a Website Audit Report?